In the year 2000, an interesting problem will face companies whose computer systems utilize dates having a two digit representation for the year. In the current format, the year 2000, 2001, et seq. will be represented by the two digit codes of 00, 01, et seq. Accordingly, these computer systems will be unable to distinguish between the year 2000 and the year 1900, for example, as the latter is also represented by the two digit code 00. Thus, if the computer system was, for example, to compare dates such as 1994 and 2000 to determine which was greater, an erroneous result would occur as the system would interpret the two digit representation of year 2000 (i.e., 00) as being less than the two digit representation of year 1994 (i.e., 94).
One solution to this problem would be to convert all dates within the application system of the computer to use date fields with four digit representations for the year. This, however, is a relatively expensive solution for a variety of reasons. First, this solution requires the creation and testing of programs to convert all date fields in all application files. Second, this solution requires the creation and testing of all modifications to all date field processing routines currently used by the application system. Finally, this solution requires conversion of all files to the new formats together with implementation of all of the modified application processing routines. Other problems with this solution, apart from the cost, include the significant amounts of system outage during the file conversions and the large amount of coordination required to prepare for the conversion while still accommodating normal maintenance activity.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a solution to this problem which does not suffer from the problems associated with the above-mentioned solution. It would be advantageous to have a solution which minimizes the coordination efforts necessary to implement the solution. It would be advantageous to have a solution which minimizes the "down time" experienced by the application system. Finally, it would be advantageous to have a solution which could be implemented in a piecemeal manner as part of the normal program maintenance activity.